Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen Conclusion: how anarchism still matters Introduction As possibly the most idealistic, complicated and contradictory political philoso- phy to have emerged from the Enlightenment, anarchism occupies a unique and under-acknowledged place in the history of ideas. The chapters in this volume have engaged with and critiqued much of what is taken by mainstream academics and commentators to be anarchism. In the era that we have called that of ‘global anarchism’, the classical anarchist canon has come under attack from a variety of perspectives which have posited different interpretations of history and the use of power based on narratives of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, environment, technology, social psychology and anthropocentrism. The consolidation of these critiques – all of which have long histories – has reinvigorated anarchism and allowed a con- structive dialogue with the classical-era theories of Bakunin, Proudhon, Godwin and Kropotkin et al. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, anarchism is extremely theoretically diverse, with considerable fragmentation based on differ- ent philosophical premises, each attempting to formulate strategy utilising endur- ing anarchist principles such as the need for consistency of means and ends and opposition to hierarchy. It is these parallel versions of anarchism that have led to calls for the term anarchisms to be employed instead, or indeed to re-embrace the word anarchy as an idea which many groups work towards but which holds no central organising premise. There is considerable evidence to suggest that, although this may defy consensus, as a description of the practical manifestations of libertarian and antiauthoritarian projects it is hard to fault. Anarchism has been arguably most recently visible at the many economic and political summits hosted by the rulers of the richest countries and corporate bodies, from Seattle, November 1999, onwards. However, the evidence from this book suggests that we cannot limit our concerns to this particular strand of global anarchism and all of its cross-cultural and cross-continental networks. The variety of anarchist projects on education, media, community activism, ecology, art and literature or sexual liberation is extensive, and these are far from limited to isolated pockets of the West, although there is considerable work still Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen - 9781526137289 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/30/2021 11:34:05PM via free access 214 Conclusion to be done, for instance, in putting African anarchism ‘on the map’. Yet in order to maximise the influence of anarchism so as to impact more meaningfully on the destructive economic and political agendas of the powerful, some reflection as to the constituency of anarchist process and its relationship with the non- anarchist world is needed. The following discussion considers how we might begin to theorise this rela- tionship, the opportunities for influence and the difficult question about consis- tency of means and ends of actions. We suggest that the possibilities for resistance to power and the construction of what Dennis Hardy (1979) has called ‘practical utopias’ are actually increasing in the wake of the post-11 September 2001 clampdowns and repression, despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary. This is particularly the case with contemporary debates about the future of ‘democracy’, given the emergence of new political forces in the developing world, declining electoral participation in the West and the increasing intervention that unaccountable corporate bodies such as the World Trade Organisation are having on everyday life. The spaces that open up as a result of the contradictions and complexities of social life are also important in realising the potential that can be actualised through considering popular culture as an area where anar- chism matters. To fully appreciate these possibilities, along with many other areas of likely intervention and influence, we suggest that the kind of anarchism (or even anarchisms) that is required for the future should be a non-dogmatic, flexible, inclusive one. This must be based upon an adaptability at seeing anar- chist theory and practice as something that engages with as many areas of society and culture as is practically possible, rather than existing only as a mar- ginalised and somewhat élitist political force. In order to arrive at this conclusion, we review the different ways that anar- chism can be seen in terms of its often under-acknowledged role in political change. In particular, we suggest that anarchism can serve as a ‘conscience’ to many non-anarchist or marginally anarchist milieus in terms of the influence of its central ideas. Moreover, the idea that contemporary anarchism is extremely flexible in its impact and manifestations can also be supported by the anti-dua- listic philosophical positions adopted by each of the contributors. Such a situa- tion allows much more theoretical, and therefore practical, leeway. Anarchism as the ‘conscience of politics’ One of the key themes that run through anarchist literature is the existence of an alternative account of historical change, based on everyday acts of co-opera- tion, voluntarism and spontaneity. The so-called naturalness of these actions has underpinned many anarchist arguments over the best part of two centuries from Kropotkin to Bookchin, just as Bakunin argued for the ‘naturalness’ of rebellion in his book God and the state (1985). There is, according to all of the writers in Changing anarchism, a sense that the potential for anarchist action lies barely Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen - 9781526137289 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/30/2021 11:34:05PM via free access How anarchism still matters 215 beneath the surface of everyday life, if indeed it is not overtly taking place in many contexts on a daily basis. This is an important methodological point that allows us to move away from traditional histories of anarchism that concentrate on key events such as the Paris Commune of 1871, the Haymarket martyrs of 1886, the Russian and Spanish Revolutions through to ‘May 68’ in France and beyond. It also needs to be acknowledged that the idea of anarchism has an appeal that extends far beyond the radical political milieus of this world, many of which are outlined in this collection. We would suggest that especially, but not exclusively, in the last four decades, anarchism has enjoyed a close relationship with a number of political movements that are not openly anarchist, yet main- tain many characteristics associated with anarchism. This is particularly the case with the new social movements discussed in the chapters by Morland and Purkis (chapters 1 and 2), the structures and critiques of which have been linked to anar- chism (Cahill, 1992; Welsh, 1997, 2000). These processes have intensified with the huge networks known as the ‘alternative globalisation movement’ (Chesters, 2003). It is in these contexts that anarchism acts as a cultural resource and as a form of ‘political conscience’, irrespective of whether or not the organisations in question formally acknowledge this. The invisible hand of anarchism Firstly, it is worth extending the aforementioned point about the wider influence of anarchist ideas, to note how easily such aspects of ‘social movement culture’ can be overlooked in popular and academic accounts. The full ramifications of this cannot be discussed here, but the crucial point to note is that it is the less visible dimension of political movements, rather than their explicit protest inten- tions which are frequently the location for the transmission and diffusion of ideas. We have seen how in chapters by Heckert, Goaman, and Szerszynski and Tomalin (chapters 5, 9 and 11), protest camps and actions frequently constitute transformatory experiences leading to the creation of new forms of political identity. Moreover, these cultural practices are occurring not in isolated move- ments but as part of a wider set of networks and social relations. The Dutch soci- ologist Bert Klandermans (1993) calls this ‘the multi-organisational field’, a space where political cultures interact, exchange members, form alliances and share resources. Our argument is that this is actually the norm rather than the exception within much of politics, and that within these fields anarchism has a greater influence than is often acknowledged, whether the networks concerned are officially anarchist or just implicitly so. Yet, from both a theoretical and prac- tical point of view, these incidents of cultural cross-fertilisation are particularly difficult to research, a situation which is often made more difficult by the fact that the ideological outlook of individuals comprising supposedly clearly differen- tiated groups is actually closer than is often imagined. One now well-established case in point is the impact that the radical environmental Earth First! network has had on their more established environmental counterparts. Jonathan Purkis and James Bowen - 9781526137289 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/30/2021 11:34:05PM via free access 216 Conclusion As Derek Wall documents (2000), the reaction to the emergence of the UK Earth First! network in the early 1990s from groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace was one of initial distrust if not hostility, partly on account of the drift towards ‘respectability’ and increasing bureaucratisation of these once- pioneering organisations. Such attitudes were to a certain extent reproduced